Rambod Sodeyf (رامبد صدیف) (born 1939) & Majid Kiani - Tarji'band: Dastgah-e Chahargah - Cassette published in Iran in the 1980s

Rambod Sodeyf is one of the three greatest singers in Iran in the last 50 years, the other two being Mohammad Reza Shajarian (born 1940) and Hatam Asgari Farahani (born 1933). None of the other Iranian singers masters the vocal art of Avaz in such a complete way as these three. Shajarian is universally well known and has published over 30 CDs and a couple of DVDs. The other two are only known to some connoisseurs. Hatam Asgari Farahani insisteded up to recently that his privately done recordings should be exclusively for his students. Only recently the legendary Iranian label Mahoor published four CDs (partly boxes of several CDs). All these CDs and DVDs can be obtained outside of Iran from: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com. We posted a set of four cassettes by Hatam Asgari (Askari) Farahani in 2011 here. Recently we also posted a cassette by Shajarian here.

Rambod Sodeyf always refused to be recorded. As far as I know the reason seems to be that he is convinced, as also Hatam Asgari Farahani, that the exquisit art of Iranian Avaz (classical non-metric vocal improvisation) is an art which has to be recreated in each performance newly and therefore should not be fixed, neither by being written down nor by recordings. Only once, the great Santur player Majid Kiani was able to convince Sodeyf to make a recording with him. This is the recording we present here.

Luckily there is one more recording, done by WDR, the Western German broadcasting, which recorded in 1992 a concert in Cologne. This one we will post next.

It is a pity that there are no other recordings. At least now in his old age he should consent to be recorded, as otherwise his music will get lost once he passes away. But maybe there are some good Mehfil recordings or a Radif which might emerge one day.

Rambod Sodeyf has learned from some of the greatest singers of the 20th century: the outstanding Soleyman Amir Qasemi (Ghasemi) (1884-1976), also known as Salim Khan, the towering Eqbal Azar (1866-1970) and the great Radif teacher Abdollah Davami (1891-1980). CDs by these singers can be obtained from: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com.
Here is a link from which one can download some other concert recordings by Sodeyf, unfortunately in poor sound quality: http://www.sardroud.blogfa.com/post-68.aspx.
He has his own music school in Ardebil in Iranian Azerbaijan.

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Ashesh Bandopadhyaya (1920-1992) - Esraj - Cassette published in India in 1986

Here another great master of the Vishnupur Gharana, this time a master of the Esraj.

This is a transfer of a cassette to CD which a friend in Paris did for me more than 10 years ago. Many thanks to him.

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About the artist:
http://www.visva-bharati.ac.in/GreatMasters/Contents/ashesh.htm

Satya Kinkar Bandyopadhyay (1899-1980) - Sangeetacharya - LP published in India in 1979

Satya Kinkar Bandyopadhyay was the last complete master of the Vishnupur Gharana, being a master of Dhrupad, Khyal, Tappa, Surbahar, Sitar and Esraj. After him no other musician covered all these traditions of the Vishnupur Gharana: there were singers of Khyal like his son Amiya Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Surbahar & Sitar players like Manilal Nag or Esraj players like the great Ashesh Bandyopadhyay and his outstanding disciple Ranadhir Roy.

In recent years Bihaan Music in Kolkata released three CDs by Satya Kinkar Bandyopadhyay, which cover the whole spectrum of his art. See below for details.

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About the Vishnupur (Bishnupur) Gharana:

http://bishnupurgharana.com/site/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishnupur_gharana

http://debatesangeet.blogspot.de/2009/09/interview-sujit-gangopadhyay-i.html

Satya Kinkar Bandopadhyay (Vocal) - The Maestro of Bishnupur Gharana: Raga Imaan (28:23) & Raga Bageshree (20:08 & 10:21), BIHAAN, BMC-75

„Satya Kinkar Bandopadhyay (1899 - 1980), maestro of the Bishnupur Gharana, was born in Bishnupur of Bankura District. Disciple of the legendary musician Gopeshwar Bandyopadhyay, he was a talent both in vocal and instrumental music. He came to reside in Kolkata permanently from the year 1921. He was an A Grade artist of Akashbani from the beginning and was attached to it till 1962. In the year 1978 he was garlanded by the Rajya Sangeet Academy award. He worked as an examiner of both Rabindra Bharati and Biswabharati Universites. His performance in Dhrupad, Kheyal and Thumri in Kolkata and also throughout the country was well marked by the listeners. He was also awarded the ITC SRA award. He is the author of a number of books related to hindusthani classical music."

Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay (1899-1980) (Vocal) & Gopeswar Bandopadhyay (1880-1963)  (Vocal) – Durbari Vishnupur, Set of 2 CDs, CD 1: Gopeswar Bandopadhyay: Raga Behag: Kheyal – Hindi (2:33), Raga Behag: Kheyal – Bangla (3:04), Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay: Raga Bihag: Kheyal – Hindi (17:43), Raga Darbari: Kheyal – Bangla (13:53) & Raga Darbari: Drut Kheyal – Bangla (13:32), Raga Manjh Khamaj: Bhajan – Bangla (14:38), CD 2: Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay: Raga Darbari Kanara (Live from Vrindavan, 1980. Pakhawaj: Rajib Lochan De): Alap, Chautal, Dhamar, Surfaktal (55:08), Sindhu Tappa (4:01), Raga Jhinjhit Khamaj: Tappa Bhajan (9:37), Raga Bhairavi: Bhajan (7:08), BIHAAN MUSIC – Heritage Series, BMC-213

Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay and his uncle Gopeswar Bandopadhyay were very respected masters of the Vishnupur Gharana, experts in Dhrupad, Dhamar, Khyal, Tappa, Sitar & Esraj. They were true Durbari musicians, that means court musicians that were not required to sing to please the masses. Their singing style was only for the cognoscente. Especially interesting is the long Dhrupad in Gauharbani style on the 2nd CD, but also the Khyals in Behag and Darbari on the 1st CD. Excellent.

Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay (1899-1980) (Vocal, Esraj & Sitar) - The Royal Archive: Tappa (10:02), Tappa (4:08), Esraj (6:55), Sitar (37:57), BIHAAN - HERITAGE SERIES, BMC-127

Like most of the older representatives of Vishnupur Gharana, the legendary singer was at the same time an excellent instrumentalist. Especially the piece on Sitar is very interesting and illustrates an old sitar style, especially in the long alap. Excellent. 

As always these CDs can be obtained from: info@raga-maqam-dastgah.com

Pandit Pran Nath (1918-1996) - At WDR in Cologne on 8.12.1984

Pandit Pran Nath, accompanied by Krishna Bhatt on Tabla and Terry Riley & Rolf Sennemann on Tambura, at WDR Funkhaus (West German Broadcasting Cologne) on 8th of december 1984 in the series "Musik der Zeit".

1. Raga Jaijaivanti - Khyal Vilambit Ektal - Madhyalay (27:59)

2. Darbari Kanada (21:12)

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Many thanks to KF for the recordings.

On the artist see:

http://www.otherminds.org/html/Prannath.html

http://bidoun.org/articles/lord-of-the-drone

http://www.henryflynt.org/aesthetics/on_pandit_pran_nath.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pran_Nath_(musician)

Vilayat Khan - Sitar & Imrat Khan - Surbahar - Music of India - LP published in England in 1962

Here an early mono edition of the legendary LP.

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Vinayak Vora (1929 - 2006) - The Magic of Dilruba and Tarshehnai - Cassette published in India in 1990

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For more about the artist and some beautiful longer performances, see:

http://vinayakvora.com/index.html

Tar Shehnai

More Sursringar - Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury (1901-1972) - Raga Gandhari

In 2014 we posted already two recordings by Ustad Allauddin Khan and Radhika Mohan Maitra, in which they play the rare Dhrupad instrument Sursringar. See here. There exist only very few recordings of this instrument. In 2013 we posted a LP which had on the second side a track played on the Surshringar. See here. Now we present another recording by the amateur musician Birendra Kishore Roy Choudhury. I received this recording many many years ago on a cassette from VN, a collector of Dhrupad recordings in UK. My friend KF digitalised the recording and made a nice cover for it. 

"Pt. Birendra Kishore Roy Choadhury (~1901-1972?) was from a family of wealthy zamindars (landowners) in East Bengal, what is now Bangladesh. The estate was called Gouripur, in the Mymensingh district. His father, Brajendra Kishore Roy Choudhury, was renowned as a patron of musicians. His son not only continued this tradition of patronage, but became the disciple of many of the great musicians of his time, including Mohammed Wazir Khan, the great Binkar of Rampur and the last descendant of Tansen's daughter Saraswati; Mohammed Ali Khan who was the second son of Basat Khan; Imdad Khan, founder of the lineage of sitar represented today by his grandson Vilayat Khan; Allauddin Khan, father of Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi and guru to Ravi Shankar, and Hafiz Ali Khan, the great sarod maestro. Birendra Kishore Roy Choudhury was a master of the Dhrupad style, especially in instrumental music, and played the Bin, the Sursringar and the Seni Rabab." 

From: http://davidphilipson.com/pages/TansenBook.html

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David Philipson shares on this link a very interesting small book "Indian Music and Tansen" by Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, which I made into a pdf file. See download link below. 

Indian Music and Mian Tansen by Pt. Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury

See here a Raga Barwa by him on Rudra Veena: https://www.mediafire.com/?stpc5rgt65o4i#09nezectr2f4o

Munawar Ali Khan (1930-1989) - Classical Vocal - LP published in 1980 in India

In 2011 we posted three LPs by Munawar Ali Khan. This fourth (or rather third) LP I only was recently able to obtain, funnily enough from a LP dealer on Discogs in Kazakhstan. Soon we will post also a cassette from EMI Pakistan, recorded live in Pakistan.

Many music lovers lack justice toward him by comparing him to his incomparable father, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Munawar Ali Khan created his own style and one has to appreciate him in himself. I have to say, that I always, from the first LP till today, was very fond of his very relaxed and beautiful way of singing. Even his so-called light classical performances. See his wonderful LP of Punjabi songs: Pahadi & Kafi. 

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Note the mistake the label made by naming the Raga on Side 2 also as Raga Bairagi, though giving the names of the compositions correctly (I guess).

Three Illustrious Brothers: Pandit Maniram (1920-1985), Pandit Pratap Narayan (1918-2002) & Pandit Jasraj (born 1930) - LP published in India in 1976

This is an LP which I was very fond of for a number of years when I bought it in Southall near London in the second half of the 1970. I liked very much the soaring voice of Pandit Maniram. And also the accompanists: the wonderful Sultan Khan on Sarangi and the outstanding Nizamuddin Khan on Tabla. There was a time when I was so fond of the playing of Ustad Nizamuddin Khan that I bought every LP on which he played, regardless of the main musician.

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From Iran to India, back to Iran and beyond

After this long and ardeous journey through all these provinces of Iran is completed, passing places where foreigners normally never get to, we will spend some time in India in the next couple of weeks, before passing again through Iran for some classical Dastgah music and then getting to some other places.

Mirror and Song - A collection of 28 cassettes of regional and religious music of Iran published in Iran, recorded in 1994 - The last (or perhaps rather the first) cassette with the number zero

This cassette with the number zero serves either as an introduction to the series 

or a resumée, containing short excerpts from the other cassettes.

Side A: 

18 tracks

Side B:

17 tracks

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Mirror and Song - A collection of 28 cassettes of regional and religious music of Iran published in Iran, recorded in 1994 - Cassette 27: Music of the Qashqai (Fars) & from Hawraman (Kurdistan)

Side A:

Music of the Qashqai - Ashiqi Music

Singer accompanying himself on Kemencheh  and a Tombak player

Side B:

1. Music of the Qashqai - Sarbani Music (that's what I read)

A singer accompanied by a Ney player

2. Music from Hawraman - Kurdistan

Vocal 

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Note: The Qashqai are a nomadic tribe of Turkish origin living mainly in the province of Fars.